


Good Thing Kade's Not Claustrophobic

by Random-Vore-Enthusiast (Amazionion)



Series: Random Fandom Vore Ficlets [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Rescue Bots
Genre: Fanmade Cybertronian biology, Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Pred!Boulder, Pred!Heatwave, Prey!Graham, Prey!Kade, Vore, protection vore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26823796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amazionion/pseuds/Random-Vore-Enthusiast
Summary: Heatwave needs to protect Kade one way or another, so when his cab gets broken, he'll need to get creative. (And the aftermath that follows such a discovery)
Relationships: Boulder & Graham Burns, Kade Burns & Heatwave
Series: Random Fandom Vore Ficlets [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939084
Comments: 41
Kudos: 66





	1. (But He Might Be After This)

**Author's Note:**

> **Contains** : soft safe protective vore, swearing, mild injuries

Boulder, Graham, Kade, and Heatwave were deep in the tunnels under Griffin Rock. There was a bad rainstorm going on, and they were worried about a sinkhole, so they were checking supports and the flooding patterns. 

"I think that there's a crack in one of the sewer pipes under the eastern side. There's a lot of rainwater flooding these tunnels from the street. Boulder and I are working on a temp patch, but we need a plumbing crew out here as soon as the rain stops." Graham said over the commlink.

"Okay, Graham. Heatwave and I are bracing a support way down in the tunnels." Kade glanced up at the Cybertronian that was bracing up a wooden beam with another wooden beam. "We'll be heading up soon." 

"Be careful. Everything on that end is pretty shaky."

"Don't worry, Graham. We got this."

"I'd like for Boulder to help me 'get this.'" Heatwave grunted. "It's heavy." 

"You got it, big guy." Kade glanced up at Heatwave as he finished sinking the support into the dirt. "Okay, let's get out of here before the whole cave comes down on us. " 

Heatwave eased himself out from underneath the beams. "Let's go." He transformed and opened a door for Kade. 

The young man climbed inside and they began to move out. They'd just passed the end of the tunnel when the support beam snapped.

Many things happened at once. Heatwave was struck hard. Kade was thrown out of the cab while he transformed. 

Kade managed to scramble to his knees when the dust settled. "Heatwave!" 

"Kade! You okay?" Heatwave grunted as he shifted the rubble off him. 

"I'm fine." He slogged over to the bot, and a gasp left him when he saw the state Heatwave was in. His windshield was shattered. Glass was covering the inside of the cab. "You're hurt." 

"Just the windshield." He picked Kade up out of the rapidly rising water. "We need to get out of here." 

"It's going to take a while to dig ourselves out, and the cave could keep collapsing on us." Kade grimaced. "The water's rising. I'd get in your cab, but…" 

"But it's currently full of broken glass." Heatwave finished. "So you're going to drown unless we think of something." The water was already reaching Heatwave's knee. 

"Seems like it." He activated the commlink. "Graham! Heatwave and I are stuck. The cave collapsed and it's filling up quickly. Ideas?" 

Static.

"Shit!" Kade ran his hands through his hair. "What now?!" 

Heatwave blinked. "I have an idea, but you aren't going to like it."

"What is it?" 

"There's... another place inside me that's still airtight, but you're not gonna like it." 

"At this point, just do it." Kade glanced down at the rising water. 

"Okay, don't say I didn't warn you."

Kade didn’t have time to ask just what the hell Heatwave was talking about when his stuck Kade’s upper body into his mouth. He yelped and tried to stick his hands out to stop his descent, but his arms were pinned to his side. “Heatwave!” 

“Stop squirming.” Heatwave’s voice was still eerily clear, though very loud. 

“Heatwave stop!” Kade kicked his legs. “Let go of me!” He could feel the large bot grab at his legs, holding them still. Kade was fully restrained from the shoulders down. “Heatwave!” His voice had jumped up in pitch. 

There was a push on his legs, and Kade was lurched forward towards Heatwave’s throat pipe. Everything tilted back, and Kade slid even closer. Why was Heatwave doing this?! Why was he  _ eating  _ him?!

Panicked breaths forced their ways out of Kade’s throat and he tried to wiggle away. His instincts screamed at him that this was  _ wrong  _ and  _ bad  _ and he was going to  _ die.  _ Darkness enveloped him and the pressure on his body increased. His heart was pounding harder in his chest and he struggled as hard as he could. 

Heatwave’s throat was like a flexible metal tube, bulging out as his shoulders were pushed down. Kade couldn’t do more than squirm as he was pushed deeper into Heatwave’s body. After a moment, he fell into what must have been Heatwave’s stomach. It was more flexible than his throat, and it gave a bit under his weight. Kade squirmed around to be right side up, and he pushed against the walls, trying to make more space for him. “Heatwave! You mother fucker! Let me out!” 

“Calm down and stop squirming.” There was a quiet thud to his left, what must have been the outside. “You’re safe in there.”

“You  _ ate  _ me!” Kade kicked out, hard, with his boot. “You asshole!” 

“It’s to keep you safe, you little shit.” Heatwave growled. “Would you rather have drowned out here?” 

“I would have liked a warning before you just…  _ ate _ me!” Kade kicked again. “I freaked out because you just stuffed me in your mouth!” 

“Can you stop kicking me, asshole?” Heatwave growled and suddenly everything pushed in on Kade, forcing him to stay still. “That hurts, you know, and I’ve saved your life doing this.” 

Kade stopped trying to push against the walls. “Just… Just hurry up. It’s freaky in here.” He went limp and after a second the weird flesh-like metal stopped actively pressing against him. 

Heatwave shook his head and went back to trying to dig themselves out of the closed off cave. He kept cycling air through his systems to make sure Kade wouldn’t suffocate while he worked. The water was rising, and it was making it harder to keep his balance, but also easier to move the rocks that were under the water. 

It was strange, having a human in his tank, but it wasn’t terrible. The kicking had been the worst part, but at least he’d stopped doing that. Kade’s weight felt so different, packed in his tank instead of in his cab. He could feel the human’s heart beat against the walls of his tank, his breathing, how he would shift a little with his movements. It still felt really weird. The hard plating around his middle felt tight, like he’d had too much energon, and he felt a little unbalanced. Occasionally he’d place a hand on his middle to check on Kade. He seemed okay.

Kade had forced himself to calm down a little, stuck inside Heatwave’s stomach. There was no use panicking. It would just distract Heatwave from digging them out. Now that he was no longer panicking, he took the time to observe the stomach around him. 

First off, it was surprisingly flexible. Not every part of them was solid metal, it seemed. Second, it was pretty warm. It could get freezing in the tunnels beneath Griffin Rock, but it was warm in here. Surprisingly warm. Third, Kade was able to  _ see. _ It wasn’t pitch black in there. There were small, softly glowing blue lights around the bottom of the stomach that allowed him to see. Fourth, the noises weren’t what he expected. He thought there’d be more whirring than there actually was. He heard the vents cycling air and some strange thumping noise. It wasn’t coming from outside, it was coming from almost directly above him. Like a heartbeat. 

“Hey, Heatwave?”

“Yeah?” His voice was loud, and unmuffled by anything. Weird.

“You once mentioned that energon is your life blood. What pumps that around your body?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I think I can hear it.” 

“It’s just called an energon pump.” Heatwave grunted, finally getting enough rocks out of the way so he could get out. “It acts about like a human heart does."

Heatwave had managed to force himself out of the collapsed tunnel. He had to swim through a fair amount of water before he could get out. 

"You okay?" Heatwave began to cycle air back through his systems. Kade had been pretty squirmy, he hoped he'd not suffocated any. 

"I'm fine, but my legs are falling asleep. Are we out yet?" 

"No. Let me get above ground or find Boulder first." Heatwave stood up, hand over his middle. 

"W-wait, wait a second!" Kade squirmed harder. "Why do you have to find Boulder first? Let me out of here now!" 

"Because Cybertronians don't have gag reflexes." Heatwave paused and then smirked down at his firm middle. "You just don't want Graham knowing that you were in my tank." 

"I don't want  _ anyone _ finding out that I was in your gut." Kade weakly punched the wall of the tank. "Let me out! Fucker!" 

"I couldn't let you out even if I wanted to." Heatwave gently patted his middle. "I have an idea, but I need a second set of hands to do it."

"Heatwave, you bastard!" 

"Our species reproduces asexually, actually." Heatwave tried his commlink as he walked, hand gently pressed against his middle. "Boulder, come in. Can you hear me?"

"I hear you Heatwave." Boulder's voice came through. "Is Kade with you? We can't reach his comm." 

"Yeah he's with me." Kade kicked harshly at the wall of his tank. "Where are you guys?" 

"Just about to come up at the firehouse." 

"I'll meet you there." Heatwave headed back that way, smirking to himself. 

"I hate you." 

"Get over yourself. I saved your life." Heatwave felt something poking against the inside of his lower jaw. He pulled it out. "Hey, found your comm." 

\---

“I’m coming up on the tunnel now. Heatwave out.” He turned off his comm and paused just around the final bend. Kade had stopped struggling, but he was fine. Just embarrassed and tired. “Ready, Kade?”

“No, but if it gets me out of here sooner, I guess so.”

Heatwave walked out of the tunnel. “We’re back.”

“Your window!” Blades gasped and covered his mouth. “Are you okay?”

“It’s just a windshield, Blades, don’t freak out.” Heatwave cleared his throat. “The tunnel collapsed on us, and I got hit.”

“We’ll have to replace that before you can go out again.” Boulder was eyeing the water logged cab. “Where’s Kade?”

Heatwave paused, trying to think about how exactly he was going to tell them, especially with the other Burneses watching him. Should he just get on out with it?

“Heatwave, where is Kade?” Chase questioned. 

“Well, the cavern was filling up quickly, and my cab wasn’t really water tight anymore, and, well, you know, desperate times call for desperate measures, so I had to…”

"Heatwave, is Kade in your tank?" Chase tilted his head slightly. 

"Uhm, yeah.” Heatwave placed a hand over his middle. “I didn't want him to drown. How’d you guess?”

“It is the only other place that is airtight and could hold a human.” 

Blades pulled a face and took a step back. “You what? Gross!” 

“Hey, I didn’t have any other option.” Heatwave glared at the smaller bot. 

“You did what!?” The Chief yelled. 

He winced softly. Right. He’d forgotten humans were prey species. It might freak them out a little more. “Believe me, I wouldn’t do this if I could have just put him in the cab. He’s been beating up my insides like nobody’s business.” 

“Is he okay?” Boulder nudged Heatwave’s hand aside to place his own on Heatwave’s middle. “Kade, can you hear us?”

“I can hear you.” Kade began to squirm again. “Make him spit me out!” 

“That’s going to be a little more complicated than you might think. Cybertronians don’t have anything equivalent to a gag reflex.” Boulder hummed softly before walking away. “I have an idea, but I might need to remove some plating. Let me go see if I have something among our medical supplies”

“Heatwave, that was incredibly dangerous.” Chase approached and crossed his arms. “If there had been any energon in your tank, it could have caused serious damage to Kade.”

“Oh come on, he was going to drown.” Heatwave scoffed. “Get off my case.” 

“I am glad you were able to think outside of the box to save him.” Chase uncrossed his arms. “It was admirable.” 

“Tell that to my organs. If he kicked much harder, he’d damage my filters.” 

“Wait, wait. Hold on.” Dani interrupted, looking at Heatwave like he’d lost his mind. “You  _ ate  _ Kade? And you’ve just been carrying him around like that?”

Graham shook his head, eyes never straying from Heatwave’s middle. “No wonder he’s been kicking at you. That’s got to be so weird, being in a Cybertronian stomach.” 

“Is he alright?” Chief looked the most nervous. “You haven’t… your body hasn’t tried to digest him, has it?”

“No, no. He’s perfectly safe in there, I promise. We can't break down organic matter. I wouldn't try it if I thought Kade would be at risk.”

A few minutes later, Boulder returned with a data pad in his hands. "There's two options that I came up with for getting Kade out." 

"Oh?" 

"One is that we cut Heatwave open and just pull him out. But we'd need a skilled surgeon to do it, and it wouldn't be wise to bother Ratchet for something so… trivial." 

"Or hack me open!" Heatwave protested. "What's the other option? Blow torch?" 

"No, if we remove some of your plating, we should be able to just push him out. Kade has a little room to move, right?" 

"Not much." Kade grumped and squirmed slightly.

"Then with a little pressure to the abdominal region we can get him back into your throat pipe and from there it should be easy to get him out."

"Great." Heatwave grunted and followed Boulder to a side room where they could try to remove Kade. 

Dani rounded on Blades. “You can  _ do that?!” _

Blades raised his hands in defense. “I didn’t know, don’t look at me. Yell at Heatwave. He thought it’d be a good idea.”

Chase noticed the Chief sitting on a crate, hand over his chest. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Chase, just… stressed.”

“Is there anything I can do to ease your distress?”

“I’ll be fine, Chase, don’t worry.” He ran a hand through his hair, straightening. “I just need to process the fact one of my sons is in a giant alien robot’s stomach.”

“I’m sure Kade will be alright.” 

A few moments later, Boulder returned, following behind Kade, who was looking very disgruntled. “Not a word. I’m going to go shower.” He grumped before heading for the stairs. 

Cody was coming down, and pulled to the side when Kade stormed past him. “What’s his deal?”


	2. Local Firefighter Eaten by Partner (aka, the Heatwave sees Ratchet Follow up)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Summary:** Heatwave is feeling a little weird after Kade was kicking around in his internal organs, so he decides to see a real doctor about it. Just in case of some damage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Contains:** Mentions of vore but none take place, swearing, the kids from Transformers: Prime make an appearance, brief non-sexual nudity, nonconsensual non-sexual handling

It had been a day or so since the incident during the flooding. Heatwave was still feeling phantom pains from where Kade had been kicking around his internals. 

It was kind of starting to worry him. 

He'd made a joke about Kade damaging his filters and tank lining, but it was kinda starting to worry him that Kade actually might have caused damage to his internal organs. He was worried he'd need surgery or some kind of transplant if things were bad.

"I think you should contact Optimus Prime's medical officer." Chase had suggested when Heatwave complained about it to him. "If there has been irreparable damage, I will happily donate one of my filters for you." 

"Thanks, Chase, but I hope it isn't necessary. Energon is tight enough as it is, being down a filter will just make it worse." 

"You can only be sure if we contact a real medical officer."

He sighed. "You're right. I'll go make a call." 

After a very awkward call, Heatwave was set up to go check with their chief medical officer, Ratchet. He'd managed to avoid the reason exactly why he needed to be checked over, just informing him of the internal pains and not the reason why he thinks it's happening. That was a conservation he'd like to have out of the audio receptor range of Optimus Prime. 

"Kade?" He called upstairs.

"What?" Kade called back.

"Get down here, you're coming with me to see Ratchet!" 

"Why?"

"You're the reason I'm going!" 

"Gimme a minute!" 

Heatwave waited impatiently for Kade to come down to the bunker. After a minute he showed up. "Okay, big baby, I'll hold your hand." 

"You're the whole reason I need to go, you parasite." Heatwave picked Kade up off the catwalk, settling him in his cupped hands. 

After a moment, a ground bridge portal opened and Heatwave walked through. It was the first time he'd been inside their base, he tried to quickly take it all in. High ceilings, communication relay, shielded concrete walls, a little dusty, but it was reasonable. They had more important things to do than spring cleaning. 

"Heatwave." Ratchet greeted as he shut down the ground bridge. "Come into the medical - You brought your human." 

Kade made an offended noise.  _ "His _ human?" 

"Is that a problem?" Heatwave glanced down at Kade. 

"There's a bad enough infestation as it is." Ratchet muttered under his breath before speaking up. "Leave him with the others before you come into the medical bay. I don't want him breaking something."

"I am  _ not _ your human." Kade grumped as Heatwave carried him over to a platform. "We're partners."

Heatwave sighed. "If I'm  _ your _ fire truck at home, you can be  _ my _ human here. Suck it up, it'll only take a few minutes." He placed Kade on the platform with a few human things on it before heading to the medical bay. 

Ratchet gestured for Heatwave to sit on the examination table. He did. "You mentioned you were having some internal pain. Describe it to me." 

"It's just this dull ache, like it's bruised or something." 

"Let me see." Ratchet lightly pressed an instrument to his sides and was silent while he took readings. "Do you have any ideas as to what could have caused this damage?" 

"I have an idea, sir." 

"Mind telling me?" 

Heatwave stuttered for a moment before figuring out what to say. "Well, I think my human might have caused some damage to my tank and filters." 

"By…." 

"He might have, er, kicked them." 

Ratchet paused and stared at Heatwave. "Your human partner kicked your filters." His voice was full of skepticism. 

"Yeah."

Ratchet continued to stare, analyzing him. "Your  _ internal _ filters."

Heatwave rubbed his jaw for a second. "Yes sir." 

He put his hands on his hips. "Dare I ask how your human partner managed to get in a position to  _ reach _ your filters?" 

"Well, you see, I, uh, there was a cave in… " 

\---

Kade scoffed and crossed his arms. His human. Kade was  _ nobody's  _ human but his own. “Stupid robots.” He muttered under his breath and glanced around. 

Behind him he noticed a couch, and three teenagers staring at him with wide eyes. He flinched back. Civilians?

One vaulted over the back of the couch and rushed up to him. "Hi, I'm Miko, what's your name? Who's the bot? What kind of blasters is he packing?" She stuck her hand out and Kade just stared for a moment. 

She was Japanese, wearing layers of brightly colored clothes, platform boots, dyed pink hair, and half polished nails. He blinked and then hesitantly took her hand. "Kade." 

"That's Jack." She pointed to the raven haired teen still staring from over on the couch. "And that's Raf." She pointed to the smaller, fluffy haired boy. "How long have you been riding with a 'bot?"

"Uhh…… You're all kids." 

These bots actually fought. Why were  _ kids _ the human partners of the  _ soldier _ autobots?!

Miko waved her hand. "So what? We can handle ourselves. Tell us about your bot. Where are you from? Fight any 'cons?" 

Kade blinked at her again. "My ride is Heatwave, and no we haven't fought any 'Cons… We're emergency responders, not soldiers."

"Is he a fire truck!?" She gasped.

"Yeah?" He was still trying to wrap his head around the civilians in what was basically a Cybertronian military base. 

"Sweet! We're about to start a racing tournament, want to join?" 

"Uh, sure." He joined them on the couch, only briefly glancing at the t.v. while they started the game. 

Kids. Actual kids are closer to the front lines of this war than Heatwave, who wants to fight. He distantly hoped that Heatwave never found out about this. 

"So, you're from Griffin Rock?" Raf handed him a controller. "There's a bunch of conspiracy surrounding that island. What really goes on there?" 

"That's classified." He figured out the buttons while Miko connected the other controller. "How did you even know I'm from there?" 

"It says so on your jacket." 

Kade glanced at himself and realized he was wearing his varsity jacket from high school, which of course had the school name displayed across the back. 

"I read that it was a secret weapons testing ground. That true?" Miko started up the race. 

"Legally, I can neither confirm nor deny any theories about Griffin Rock." He focused on the video game instead of questions. 

That didn't stop the kids from asking him a million questions about the place. 

He was trying his best to ignore them, but of course, he did end up venting a little about how much being the only fire fighter on an entire island is so frustrated. He made sure not to accidentally divulge any secrets though. 

Their gaming tournament ended with the doc bot yelling from the medical bay. “YOU DID  _ WHAT _ ?! Explain yourself!”

They glanced towards the medical bay. Kade glanced at the kids, who glanced around each other. “Oooooohhh, Heatwave is in trouble.” Miko snickered. “Know why?”

Kade had a sinking feeling in his stomach, and he had a feeling it had to do with his stay in Heatwave’s stomach. “I might know.” He handed the controller off to Jack before standing up.

Heatwave edged out of the medical bay after a minute. “Er, Ratchet needs to see us both.” 

Kade went to climb down the ladder to the floor, but Heatwave just picked him up off a rung. He squawked in protest but allowed it to happen. 

Ratchet was muttering under his breath as Heatwave set Kade on the examination table. "I brought him."

"I cannot believe you thought it was a good idea. Out of all the scrap brained - you thought putting a human in your tank was a good idea." He muttered while he grabbed Kade around the waist and picked him up. "Have you had any lingering pain, impaired motor or mental ability, or burns since being in Heatwave's tank?" 

"Uh no?" Kade squirmed at the firm grip and the manhandling from the medical bot. "I've felt fine." 

"You could argue he's never been at full mental ability, but I've not noticed anything wrong." Heatwave snarked. 

Kade growled at his partner, and then yelped when his shirt was roughly pulled up by Ratchet. "Hey!" 

"And I assume the clothes you were wearing showed no damage?" 

"Yes, and watch the goods!" Kade tried to tug his shirt back. "Put me down!" 

"I'm nearly done, stop squirming." Ratchet said shortly. 

Kade grimaced, but allowed it. He really hated the feeling of those big, cold, metal fingers against his bare skin. Heatwave's hands weren't nearly this cold. 

After being poked and prodded for a long minute, Kade was thankfully released, but he was placed directly into Heatwave's hands. "I'd recommend a thorough decontamination bath, we have a tub you can use with the cleaning supplies." He made a gesture towards a large crate.

He made a very indignant noise. He was a grown man, he did not need to be bathed! He opened his mouth to tell them such, but Heatwave covered his mouth with a metal finger. "Yes, sir." And he briskly turned out of the medical bay. 

He let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God. Let's go home now." 

"Not yet. You need a decontamination bath." 

"Oh come on, I'm fine!"

"I'm not going through all that just to lose you to energon poisoning." 

"Heatwave, I am a grown man, I don't need to be bathed." He struggled while Heatwave grabbed a metal tub and a large sponge. 

"You heard the doc."

"Yeah, and I've been manhandled by him. Can't say he's my favorite bot." 

"You'll get over it." 

Kade was certainly not happy about this. At the very least they weren't in the main room so there was a shred of dignity preserved. That still didn't mean that he wasn't about to gripe the entire time. 

"This is ridiculous. I'm fine." Kade had his arms crossed over his chest. 

"Stop complaining." Heatwave tugged his jacket off. "This will go faster if you cooperate." 

"Fine, but I'm not going to be happy about it." Kade shooed his hand away and finished getting undressed. 

\---

It was like trying to wash a pissed off cat. Kade resisted being touched or handled at all, especially now. He'd pull away and growl at the sponge and clearly hated the water. 

Part of him really wanted to tease Kade about this whole thing, the rest of him wanted this over with as soon as physically possible. 

"This is stupid." Kade muttered for the umpteenth time.

"Look, Kade, I'm not about to lose you to energon poisoning after saving you from drowning and getting kicked in the filters for it. We're nearly done." Heatwave sighed. "Hold your breath, I'm going to rinse your hair." 

Kade was grumpy through the entire bath, and angrily dried himself. 

"It wasn't that bad, admit it." 

"Screw you." Kade finished dressing himself. "Can we go home now, please?" 

"C'mon, grumpy Gus." He scooped Kade up in his hands and left for the ground bridge portal where Ratchet was entering the coordinates. 

"If your pain persists, call me." Ratchet fired up the portal. "And try not to do that again." 

"Yes, sir." Heatwave nodded before going through the ground bridge. 

It felt great to be back in the firehouse. He set Kade down as the portal closed, and he stormed up the stairs. 

"How did it go?" Chase didn't look up from his book. 

"The doc said I'm okay, and the pain should fade on its own. There wasn't any serious damage." 

"Good." He turned a page in his book. "And why was Kade in such a cantankerous mood?" 

"He got a decontamination bath, doctor's orders." 

"I see. Did you learn your lesson about swallowing humans?" 

"Yes." He sighed softly. "I'm going to train."


	3. Alien Biology Not So Different After All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Summary:** Graham has always had a fascination with Cybertronian biology, and after a curious discovery made by Kade and Heatwave in a crisis, he's left with many questions and turns to Boulder for answers.  
> (Starring local twiggy nerd as prey)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Contains:** Soft safe vore, in depth explanations of canon (for the continuity) and fan made Cybertronian biology and culture,

Graham was taking notes for his engineering homework while he sat in the bunker, on a crate. The rescue bots were going about their days, doing whatever, but he was having trouble focusing. 

The other day was playing in his mind over again, Kade being inside Heatwave's tank. He just had so many questions about what the inside of a Cybertronian stomach looks like, how their digestive system might work, what did it  _ feel _ like? 

Questions that Kade made it perfectly clear he was not going to answer, and questions Heatwave would just most likely ignore. 

"H-hey Boulder?" Graham spoke up as the bot passed, pulling down his headphones. 

"Yes, Graham?" 

"Could I bother you for a minute? I have some questions about Cybertronian biology." 

"Sure." He crouched in the floor in front of Graham. "What are your questions?" 

"How does your digestive system work? I know you can take energon orally or by transfusion, but I just have so many questions regarding your tank." 

"The incident sparked your interest?" 

"Yeah." Graham rubbed the back of his neck. "I understand if it makes you uncomfortable or is insensitive. You don't have to answer them." 

"No, it's alright." Boulder shifted to be sitting on the floor, legs crossed. "Which part do you want to begin on?" 

"The little information I pried out of Kade said that your tanks are squishy? Like, really malleable metal. What's up with that?" 

"Well, you know that our face plates are flexible metal, so we can move our mouths while we talk should we want to. It's the same with our tanks, but they're more malleable. They need to be able to stretch and squish with energon intake and transformation." 

"The same reasons human stomachs aren't surrounded by hard bone or cartilage." Graham turned to a new page and began writing quickly. "Fascinating… what about digestion, er, processing?" 

"Processing is the right word." Boulder placed a hand on his middle. "If we take energon orally it's usually because it's in a raw form, and therefore unusable to our systems. Our tanks and filters break it down and act as a processing unit before sending it into our systems for use." 

"But the process doesn't work on organic matter." 

"Because the chemical compounds and mechanical processes used by our bodies to process it doesn't affect organic material." 

Graham nodded, also making a note about the hypothetical atomic structure of energon. He'd not been able to study it since the four of them kept it locked up tightly, and wouldn't let anybody near it. It was dangerous to humans and most organic matter. Something about it frying a human's nervous system. 

"Can I see your mouth?" Graham asked after a moment. "Only if you're comfortable, of course." 

"Sure. Just be careful." Boulder moved his hands to be a platform in front of Graham. “Climb on.” 

Graham set his notebook and things aside so he could kneel in Boulder’s hands. He just wanted to look, notes could wait a moment. 

Boulder opened up, and Graham immediately noticed that he would be able to fit his head and shoulders into his mouth. He glanced up at Boulder, silently asking for permission, which was granted. With a little hesitation Graham leaned forward and placed his hands on the edge of Boulder's mouth, where his lip should be, but wasn't, for a better view. 

He noticed the ring of teeth and decided to focus on that first. They just protruded from the top and bottom of the mouth in a slightly different colored, solid semicircle of metal. "Hm. No individual teeth. Is it like that for everyone?" 

"No." Boulder spoke without moving his mouth at all. "Some have segmented dentas, what you'd call individual teeth, and some just have solid dentas, what I have." 

"Can I touch?" 

"Sure."

Graham reached in and ran his hand over the bottom denta, as Boulder called it. It felt like a much harder material than his face and the rest of his mouth, and there were small ridges not unlike the pattern on top of a human molar, presumably for grinding and crushing raw crystals. He grinned at himself and reached up to feel the upper denta. Nearly identical.

"No tongue, but I guess that makes sense." Graham observed, leaning forward. Their vocal patterns were different from a human, so the tongue wouldn't actually be a factor in speech.

"Be careful now." Boulder warned. "Don't fall in." 

Graham realised that he was leaning half into his mouth and pulled back out of his mouth. "Sorry." 

"It's alright." Boulder moved his mouth while he talked this time.

"How come you can talk without moving your mouth, but you do so anyway?"

"You know how we don't need to breathe, correct?"

Graham nodded in understanding.

"Our voice is reliant on a voice box in the base of the throat, there's nothing in our mouths or chests that affect it. We just unconsciously move our mouths when we talk, and it gives Cybertronians with damaged audio receptors something visual to understand what we're saying." 

"Cybertronians can be deaf?" Graham blinked. 

"Of course." Boulder nodded. "You met Bumblebee. He's mute." 

Graham nodded to himself, feeling embarrassed. "Er, what causes deafness?" 

"Repeated exposure to loud noises, physical trauma to your helm, the systems may just shut down on their own after a few million years." 

"Causes of deafness in humans." Graham nodded softly and glanced down at where he left his notebook. "I'd love to see your tank from the inside, but I understand that is really violating of your personal space, and not to mention uncomfortable and dangerous -" 

"If we could find a way to make it safe for you, I think it would be a very educating experience for us both." 

Graham paused in the middle of his rant. “Really?”

“Yes, but we need to make sure that it would be safe for you too.”

“Awesome.” Graham smiled as Boulder lowered him to the ground. “So, we need to find the possible dangers and combat them. Kade was fine for the hour or so he was stuck in Heatwave’s tank, but there was something that Chase brought up, uh…” He floundered for the words. 

“Energon poisoning?”

“Yeah, that.” Graham snapped his fingers. “That’s humans being exposed to energon. All we need to make sure that I won’t have energon poisoning by the time this is all over.”

“Perhaps some kind of protective suit?”

Graham nodded. “I’ll see what we have around. We’ll need some kind of easier way for me to get out though, preferably something you could do by yourself.”

Boulder thought for a moment. “Perhaps some kind of rope attached to a harness, so I could just pull you out. The problem with Kade and Heatwave was that there was nothing to push Kade back up. With some kind of pulley system it would be as easy as just pulling the rope up.”

“Yeah, that sounds great. Hopefully today remains peaceful enough for you and me to actually pull this off.” Graham smiled up at the bot for a moment before he took off, writing in his notebook as fast as he could. He was actually going to get to observe this first hand!

He’d need the proper instruments, and a way to safely transport them down into Boulder’s tank with him, and he had so many questions he wanted to ask and now had the  _ opportunity  _ to. It was fantastic. 

Graham bumped into Kade on the stairs as he was heading up, and he fumbled to keep a grip on his notebook. 

“Where are you going in such a hurry?” Kade grumbled. 

“I need to find a hazmat suit, Boulder and I are gonna do some science.” Was all the explanation he gave before pushing past and getting up the stairs. 

“Nerd.” Kade sighed before continuing down the stairs. 

It was a little while before everything was set in place for a little bit of scientific experimentation. They had to find the water repellent coveralls and the climbing harness with rope and Graham had to wrap up his tools that he was going to use for documentation and stuff them down the front of the jumpsuit for safekeeping and also to protect Boulder. 

“Don’t forget about your glasses.” Boulder softly reminded Graham as he was mentally getting ready for it. 

“Oh, right. Glasses.” He took them off and placed them in a pocket of the jumpsuit, adjusting the climbing harness one last time. “I think that’s everything.” 

“Did you tell the Chief about our project? I don’t want to cause any distress.”

“I mentioned it when I asked for the coveralls and the climbing harness. Dad seems fine.” Graham shrugged. “Did you tell Heatwave?”

“Yeah.” Heatwave spoke up from where he was watching in the corner. “I tried to talk him out of it, but he started going all science on me.” 

Graham startled. He hadn’t noticed Heatwave when he had come back down. “Oh! I didn’t see you there.”

“It’s fine, but I think Kade would freak if you told him what exactly you had meant by ‘science.’” Heatwave smirked to himself. 

Graham shook his head before looking up at Boulder, squinting at the lack of glasses. “I’m ready. Let’s do this.” 

Boulder gently picked Graham up in a loose fist before bringing him up towards his face. “If this ever gets uncomfortable, say something and we’ll stop.” 

“Okay.” Graham took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.” 

Boulder softly opened his mouth and allowed Graham to ease his feet in. 

The young man lowered himself slightly before he took a quick breath. "I'm psyching myself out, can you just… push me in?" 

Boulder nodded slightly and adjusted his grip to be more wrapped around Graham's waist and hips to ease him in. Graham kept himself very still and he crossed his arms in an X over his chest to help his way down. 

Graham's heart was pounding with fear and excitement as he felt his back lifted, Boulder tilting his head back. He squirmed slightly, noting from the lack of movement that his legs were already in Boulder's throat. He was eased downwards, slid over the hard denta he'd studied only a few moments ago, and Graham gasped softly as Boulder shut his mouth, plunging him into darkness. 

Gravity mostly pulled Graham down into Boulder's throat, given that he was already mostly in it. The flexible metal barely had to be pushed aside as he slipped deeper and deeper into Boulder's throat. After a moment, his feet touched something, and then he spilled into Boulder's surprisingly malleable tank. 

He glanced around, getting his bearings. His back was pressed against one of the walls and his feet braced against the other side. It was much roomier than what Kade described, he could freely move around, but it was like being in a loosely strung hammock. 

"Are you okay?" Boulder's voice rumbled above him, clear and loud. 

"Yeah! I'm doing great." Graham put his glasses on and looked around. "It's roomier than I thought in here." 

"My tank has more capacity than Heatwave, and you're smaller than Kade." 

Graham nodded to himself and pulled out his tablet and the thermometer he'd brought with him. It was noticeably warm there. He recorded ambient temperature and the heat of the walls before tucking the thermometer away. "I'm going to take some readings, but if I do anything that might hurt you, say something." 

"I will." 

Boulder got comfortable where he was sitting, a hand testing on his abdomen. It was such a strange sensation to have something living inside of his tank. Graham’s weight rested comfortably against his other organs, and it was very comforting to know that his partner was safe inside of him. 

“Is he behaving himself in there?” Heatwave asked, watching from over in the corner. 

Boulder glanced up, having temporarily forgotten Heatwave was even in the room. “Mhm.” 

Heatwave took a step closer, paused, and crossed his arms. “Good, I guess.” 

“You complained about Kade’s weight earlier when you were describing this feeling to me,” Boulder lifted his hand off his middle, “I don’t see really what there is to complain about.”

Heatwave closed the distance between them. “Oh come on, Graham weighs like half of what Kade does. He’s a twiggy nerd.”

“Hey, I can still hear you.” Graham squirmed a little to get closer to the outer wall of the tank. 

“So, how does it feel, Boulder?” Heatwave sat beside him. “Having a human in your tank.”

“It feels… strange, but interesting.” Boulder placed his hand back on his middle. “I didn’t anticipate how protective I would feel. I feel like I need to put on my deep space plates or something to protect my tank.”

Heatwave nodded. “I felt that too. For all the fighting, it was worth it to know that Kade was safe.”

“Mhm.” 

The pair sat in silence for a while. Inside of Boulder’s tank, Graham was writing down everything that he had overheard. He was interested in more than just how it felt for him to be inside of an alien stomach. Which was pretty freaking  _ awesome  _ by the way. He trusted the big bot with his life, and he knew he was safe, and it was just so  _ fascinating  _ to be tucked away in the core of someone he trusted with his life. 

Absently, Graham ran a hand across the wall of the tank. The small lights that showed inside had him curious if there were other kinds of lights in their internals, but that was a question for another day. 

Suddenly reminded of a question he had, Graham spoke up. “Hey Boulder, can you feel any of this?” He raised his other hand to run them across the walls of Boulder’s tank. 

“Mhm.” Came the reply from above. “What are you doing in there?”

“Just feeling out the walls.” He shrugged before pulling his hands back. “I’ve taken all the data I want, so, if you want to let me out I guess we can get the rope.”

“Do you want out?” 

Graham opened his mouth to speak, but paused. He didn’t necessarily  _ want  _ to leave, and he knew that he didn’t have to. It was oddly comforting in here. It was like being held, but softer. “Er… do you want me out?”

“I don’t mind if you want to stay in there a little longer, Graham.”

The young man sighed and ran his hands along the walls again. “I probably shouldn’t stay. We’re pushing our luck as it is that there hasn’t been some kind of emergency already that needs us to rush out and handle something.” He didn’t want to mention the fact he was feeling a little sleepy in there from the soft whirring and the warmth and the lulling heartbeat above him. 

“Alright, I’ll go get the rope.” 

Graham shifted a little as Boulder walked, and he checked the harness buckles ones last time as he got prepared to get hauled out. This had been a very exciting scientific experiment. He might have to talk Boulder into doing this again.


End file.
